“I don’t understand,” Joanna said. “She’s a lawyer. Why is she so willing to cop a plea? Why’s she turning state’s evidence?”
“She’s broke,” Ernie said.
“Broke!” Joanna echoed. “How can she be? She drives a Lexus.”
“It’s leased and she’s behind in the payments. Same goes for her house and the rent for her office.”
“What about her husband?”
“I don’t think he has a clue, at least he didn’t before today. She says he’s always turned his paycheck over to her and left her to handle the bills. Sounds like she’s been handling them all right. Her drug habit has been eating up every penny they both made, and then some. The same is true for Ross Jenkins. He’s broke, too. He was looking for a quick influx of cash from Alice’s estate to bail him out of the hole. Then, presumably, he and Dena would have ridden off into the sunset.”
“Nice guy. What about Mark Childers and Karen Brainard? Did Dena tell you anything about them? Were they in a financial bind as well?”
“Same deal.”
“And Monica Foster?”
“Apparently she’s not in on it. Dena referred to Monica as Miss Goody Two-shoes. Monica doesn’t do drugs. Paul Brainard and Rex Hogan don’t either. What I can’t figure out is how come straight-shooters end up getting stuck with people who aren’t? What is it, wishful thinking?”
“That, or out-and-out stupidity.”
Jenny tiptoed into the living room. “Mom,” she whispered, “are you going to come have your pie or not?”
“I have to go, Ernie,” she told him. “You go on home. I’ll come by in a little while and handle the Dena Hogan paperwork. You don’t need to worry about it. And tomorrow-”
“Tomorrow Jaime and I will both go straight to Tombstone,” Ernie told her. “In the morning we’ll finish interviewing Clete Rogers’ neighbors. Since Dena Hogan denies any involvement in that case, we need to find something that will link Ross Jenkins to Clete’s death. Then, in the afternoon, we’ll attend Alice’s funeral. That’ll take place at the Episcopal church in Tombstone at two tomorrow afternoon. Visitation is tonight at Garrity’s, down in Douglas. One of us had planned to make an appearance there as well, but there are only two of us, and Jamie and I can only be in so many places at once.”
“Mom!” Jenny insisted.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ernie. I’ve got to go.” Joanna ended the call while Jenny skewered her with an accusing stare. “Are you going back to work?”
“Yes. I have to.”
“Well, can I stay here then? I know the Gs will let me,”
“I suppose,” Joanna said. “1 don’t want to wear out your welcome, but we’ll ask.”
“Well,” Eleanor sniffed as Joanna resumed her seat. “What is it now? Another crisis, I suppose?”
Joanna looked around the table. Everyone else was finished with dessert. Hers was the only piece of pie left on the table. She took a bite. It was delicious, but she felt self-conscious eating after everyone else had finished.
“Mom has to go back to work,” Jenny announced. “So can I-may I stay here again? Please?”
“It’s fine with us,” Eva Lou said.
“Thanks,” Joanna said, then she turned to Butch. “Do you mind giving me a ride over to the department? I need to pick up a car. Both the Crown Victoria and the Blazer are out of commission at the moment.”
“Sure,” Butch said. “Finish your pie and we’ll go right away. Maybe Junior can stay here until I get back.” “That’ll be fine, too,” Eva Lou said.
Butch and Joanna left the Bradys’ house a few minutes later. At the stop sign at Cole Avenue and Arizona Street, Butch Dixon stopped, reached over, pulled Joanna as close as the seat belt would allow, and kissed her on the cheek.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m sure I look awful, but really, I’m fine.”
“You were amazingly quiet during dinner. You barely said a word. I was afraid you were upset about something.”
“I am upset,” she admitted. “I’ve spent a week dealing with people who are liars and cheats at best; druggies and murderers at worst. George gave me a little buck-up talk in the car, but it didn’t help very much. I still feel like the world is full of dirtbags, and they’re winning. People like Eva Lou and Jim Bob Brady never lied or broke a promise in their lives, but they’re the exception, Butch. They’re not the rule. The problem is, how do I bring Jenny up in a world where people like Dena Hogan and Ross Jenkins may end up running things?”
“We already live in that kind of world,” Butch said. “And the only thing you can do to change it is to keep on doing what you’re doing.”
“Even if it keeps me out late at night? Even if it makes me feel betrayed?”
“Even if it means you have to keep on taking chances. I don’t want to lose you, Joanna. And the idea that you had to go toe-to-toe with those creeps today drives me crazy. But I also know what’ll happen if you quit. You’ll be in exactly the same kind of fix as Marianne Maculyea. So where are you going now?”
“Down to Douglas to make arrangements to check a prisoner into the mental ward at County Hospital. She’s coming off drugs of some kind, and I don’t want her detoxing in one of my jail cells.”
“Can’t somebody else handle that?” Butch asked. “What about Frank Montoya or Dick Voland? Isn’t that what they get paid to do?”
“Frank has gone home, and Dick Voland doesn’t work for me anymore,” Joanna said quietly.
“He doesn’t? Since when?”
“Yesterday.”
“What do you mean? How did that happen?”
“He was waiting for me out at the ranch when I got home after Kiwanis,” Joanna explained. “He was drunker ‘an nine hundred dollars and pissed because I had gone and gotten myself engaged to you when all the time he was waiting for me to give him the go-ahead so he could ask me out.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” Butch asked.
“I didn’t have a chance.” Joanna paused. “No, that’s not true,” she added. “I didn’t want to tell you. I was afraid you’d be upset, and I didn’t want to worry you.”
“You fired him?”
“He gave me his resignation, and I accepted it.”
“At the ranch,” Butch said. “While you were there alone.” “I handled it,” Joanna said.
“What if he comes back tonight? What if he’s there now, waiting for you?”
Joanna grinned. “He’ll have a long wait, then, won’t he?” Her lame attempt to diffuse the sudden tension didn’t work.
“You know what I mean, Joanna,” Butch continued. “If Voland is so obsessed over losing you that he quit his job, it’s serious. You may think he’s just going to go away and leave you alone, but he won’t. I know how these guys work-how they think.”
“Butch, please-”
“No. You shouldn’t be out at the ranch by yourself. You should come stay at my house, or else Junior and I can come there.”
“That isn’t going to work.”
“At least let me ride down to Douglas with you. Or let me follow you down and back. That way I can be sure you’re all right.”
“Wait a minute, here,” Joanna objected. “You’re talking to a woman who already has two black eyes. I can take care of things, Butch. I’m not some helpless little woman, you know. If push conies to shove, I think I qualify under the heading of armed and dangerous.”
“Armed and bull-headed is more like it,” Butch said.
A stiff silence fell over the car. Thinking back, Joanna couldn’t quite figure out how the quarrel had started, but she did know that by the time Butch whipped the Outback to a stop beside her private back-door entrance, it still wasn’t over.
“I’ll call you as soon as I get home,” she said.
“Sure,” he muttered.
‘‘And I’ll be all right, Butch. Honest. Don’t worry.”
“Right.”
Once Joanna stepped out of the car and slammed the door, he sped away, leaving her standing in a hail of gravel. Great, she told herself. Another perfect ending to another perfect day.